Anna Finlayson

My project, titled The Unstill Life, proposes a methodology for drawing that brings together the observation and representation of objects that is fundamental to still life, with the provisional and gestural qualities of artists’ working drawings. My research identified three modes of observation, ‘seeing’, ‘picturing’ and ‘referencing’ that encompass both physical and cognitive processes that are entangled in creative labor and function as separate modes of knowledge capture. In the artworks that comprise the creative research the modes of observation intertwine to produce a drawing methodology that traces the minutes, days, weeks and months of the candidature as it evolved through the writing and in conjunction with the studio practice. The Unstill Life results in the composition of seemingly abstract imagery, but on closer examination, the works are highly representational and depict various aspects pertaining to their maker and the environment that surrounds her.